With increasing development and advance of electronic industries, a variety of electronic devices with different functions are introduced into the market. These electronic devices can meet different requirements and gradually become essential in our daily lives.
For providing a specified function, the electronic device comprises plural electronic components. Generally, the voltages for powering different electronic components are not completely identical. That is, the AC voltage from the current power supply system cannot be directly provided to all of the electronic components. For providing suitable voltages to the electronic components, the electronic device is usually equipped with a power module for converting an input AC voltage into regulated DC voltages. These regulated DC voltages will power the corresponding electronic components.
Take a personal computer as an example. A main board, an optical disk drive or a cooling fan of the computer is powered by a DC voltage lower than 12V. Consequently, a power supply is used for converting a high AC voltage into one or more regulated DC voltages. In other words, the power supply is a main power core for providing electric power to the electricity-receiving components of the electronic device. These electricity-receiving components are electricity connected with the power supply. For example, these components include a main board, an optical disk drive, a floppy disk drive, a hard disk, a cooling fan and so on.
Generally, the power supply is installed on an inner surface of a computer case and provides electric power to other electronic components of the computer. For installing the power supply on an inner surface of the computer case, the power supply is firstly fixed on a bracket, and then the bracket with the power supply is installed on the inner surface of the electronic device.
FIG. 1 schematically illustrates a method of installing a power supply on a computer case according to the prior art. Firstly, the power supply 10 is fixed on at least one lateral plate of an L-shaped bracket 11 by screws (not shown). Then, the L-shaped bracket 11 is fixed on an inner surface 13 of the computer case. Consequently, the power supply 10 is installed on the computer case.
However, the use of the L-shaped bracket 11 will increase the installing cost and the installing time and occupy much layout space.